It’s been an up-and-down run in the wheat market in recent months. Kim Anderson, a grain market economist with Oklahoma State University Extension, talks about the latest in the wheat market.
“If you’re looking at what’s going on with prices, we’ve had quite a dip. You go back to June One was right at around $7.50. It wallowed around plus or minus 60 cents or so until we got to mid-July, and then we had that report that exports in Russia had plenty of wheat production on the market. Then they were going to stop the exports out of Ukraine. We got an increase up to $8.50. We’ve now taken about $1.40 off of that.”
Anderson says it’s important to keep an eye on what’s going on with Ukraine wheat.
“I think it’s important that we watch what’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. I think right now what they’re saying is that we’re going to get that wheat out of there. I think you need to remember that we’re expected to harvest a 29.3-billion-bushel world crop. That’s a record. You look at the U.S. at about a 1.7-billion-bushel crop. That’s above the last two years of 1.65, and hard red winter wheat at 577 million. Watch those numbers as that August 11 report comes out.”
One other factor to watch in the wheat markets is dry weather.
“And then you’ve got droughts on the positive side in Europe, Africa, and Australia, and that could impact processes we get on into the Fall.”